Chapter Three
Introductions
She woke to the smell of roasting meat and coffee. She recognised the smell of the meat, but the coffee intrigued her. She opened her eyes. In front of her was a stone built fireplace and chimney. The fire was lit, and she was bathed in its heat and its glow. Over the fire was a spit with a large piece of meat skewered on it. The meat spat and sizzled. Also over the fire was a large black coffee pot. It steamed. There was wood by the fire.
She stretched out her neck and sniffed. She sniffed at the coffee pot several times, stretching her neck out further. She started to move closer when she suddenly realised that she was lying on her left side on something soft. She looked down and felt it carefully. It was a stuffed mattress of some kind, and she was covered with a blanket.
She propped herself up on her left arm and looked around. She was inside a small house or cottage. It was made of wood, and above her the roof was thatched. There were rough looking wooden tables and chairs against one wall. On shelves above the table were many provisions all stacked up. Some more were still on the table. Two saddlebags were slung over one of the chairs. Behind her there was a door. It was closed. There were two windows in the walls on either side of the door. The shutters on one were closed, but the other was open, and light streamed in.
She sat up. Her face immediately creased in pain and she quickly clutched at her side. Moving her right arm so quickly gave her more pain, and she reached up more slowly to her chest. She was surprised at the unfamiliar feel of the material of what she wore. She pulled the blanket away and found herself dressed in a long white shirt. It was slightly too big for her. She felt the material again. It was richly embroidered and very soft.
“It’s silk.”
She was startled by the voice and reached instinctively for the back of her neck. But then she saw that it was Rolf, peering at her through the open window, and she relaxed again. He smiled wryly.
“I didn’t mean to scare you.” He disappeared for a moment, and then the door opened and he came inside. He was carrying a large bucket of water, which he put down on the table. He sat down on one of the chairs and smiled at her. It was a proper smile this time. “I’m glad to see you awake at last. You slept for one whole day and night. And now it is almost midday.”
She lifted the blanket slightly, reaching down to feel the skin on her body and on her legs. She pulled the end of the shirt up as she did so. “You have washed me and dressed me,” she said, finally pulling the shirt down and tucking the blanket back around her again. “When did you do this?”
“You were fast asleep the night we arrived here. So I carried you in, sorted the place out a bit, then I washed you, and dressed you. I also used needle and thread to close your wounds, like I once saw the surgeon do for a wounded man at the Palace. Then I put some more ointment on your wounds, and re-bandaged them. I also put some ointment on the cuts and gashes on your legs, back, and stomach. After that I put you to bed in front of the fire.”
She felt her side and chest with her left hand, as if feeling the wounds under the bandages. “You have done well,” she said. “I lose no more blood and I feel less weak.”
“You look better,” he replied with a smile. “There is more colour in your skin. And even after so short a time, I am sure the bruises begin to diminish.”
It was true. Her skin had a healthy tan from her life in the forest and in the open air, but it was marred by the bruises and cuts. Many had faded, and they were all less angry now.
“I will heal quickly.” She looked down at the mattress and the blanket. They were both far wider than was necessary for just one person. And there was no other bedding visible in the small house.
“Did you sleep here?” she asked.
He nodded.
“And you did nothing with me?”
“I held you, that’s all. I wanted to keep you warm, and I wanted to hear and feel you breathing.” He remembered each night as he spoke, remembering how her body had felt as he hugged her so close. He remembered how comfortable he had felt with her next to him, and how he had yearned for her. “You’re not angry, are you?”
She looked at him as if unsure of her answer. Then she shook her head. “No, I am not angered by your actions. But I am confused as to why you did not pursue copulation.”
Rolf was immediately embarrassed. “I didn’t want to hurt you. And that’s not why I came back for you. Anyway, you were hurt, and asleep. I wouldn’t do anything like that to you. It wouldn’t be right. I wouldn’t feel right.”
“You are not sexually attracted to me?”
“Yes, of course I am– I mean, I mean– Oh, I don’t know what I mean. You say the strangest of things.” Rolf was going bright red.
He is a fool!
No, he is an innocent. His answers are genuine.
He knows nothing! His answers are irrelevant!
Then I must tell him and then his answers will have meaning.
She tilted her head to one side and stared at him curiously. “You also say strange things. But you must answer my questions truthfully. I must know your intent. Tell me why you did not kill me in the forest. Tell me why you came back for me, tended to my wounds, and fed me. Tell me what it is in the pot that smells so exciting.”
Rolf opened his mouth to answer then closed it again. Her last question had confused him, and then he blurted out, “Oh! The coffee!”
He quickly got up, retrieved a cup from a shelf, and went to the fire. He took a cloth and poured some coffee from the steaming pot, and then he knelt down beside her on the mattress and held the cup towards her. “Be careful,” he told her. “It’s hot.”
Before taking the cup, she moved closer, sniffing repeatedly. Her nose was over the liquid, her eyes closed as she smelt the hot coffee. Opening her eyes again, she took the cup in both hands and sipped from it. Her eyes grew wide as she held the coffee in her mouth before she swallowed.
Rolf chuckled. “Have you never tasted coffee before?”
She shook her head and took another sip.
“How does it taste?”
“Rich and nutty. I have eaten nuts and beans from trees before, but never like this. It warms me inside. It is soothing, and yet stimulating.”
She drew her legs up under the blanket and rested her hands on her knees as she drank some more. Her green eyes reflected the glow from the fire, causing them to sparkle. Rolf stared at her.
Her face was oval, with high cheekbones and well proportioned features. Her bright green eyes were slightly slanted, with well-defined eyebrows that were a rich luminous red like her hair. She was quite striking. Rolf couldn’t resist. He reached out and stroked her hair.
“You’re so beautiful,” he muttered. “What’s your name?”
“My name is Soo-Kai.”
“Soo-Kai,” he repeated with a smile. “That’s nice, I like that. My name is Rolf. Rolf L’Epine.”
She watched him over the rim of her cup. He was a young male, fit and healthy, with fair hair and blue eyes. Although his features were pleasing to the eye, they gave away his ancestry. But if his intentions were true, then she would be content. She swallowed the last of the coffee and held out the empty cup for more. As he refilled it, she said, “You have not answered my questions.”
He nodded. “I will answer as best I can. But even I was unsure of my actions. And I still am.” He turned and took the spit from the fire. He used the cloth to hold the skewer and handed it to her. “Here, eat as I talk. I ate while you slept.”
She took the skewer by the cloth in one hand, holding the cup of coffee in the other. Rolf could see how hungry she must have been by the way she tore at the meat with her teeth. But even the way she did that was attractive.
Rolf took a deep breath. “I think I knew from the moment I saw you standing alone against the Prince and his men that I wanted you. You were magnificent. Yes, I wanted you. But not like them. I wanted to hold you, to touch you tenderly with love, not t
ear at you like an animal. When they struck you down, when they did what they did to you, I felt so, so useless. If I had been a Knight such as they, I would have fought for you. But I am naught but a tailor to the King’s court. I have no knowledge of the art of fighting.” Rolf’s expression was tortured. “I could do nothing to stop what happened, and I am sorry. If you cannot forgive me, then I ask only that you stay until you are well. If then you wish to leave, I will not stop you.”
She chewed on the meat. Her expression gave away nothing. “Continue,” was all she said.
Rolf nodded. “As a Hunt novice, I knew that the task of killing you would be given to me. I vowed that I would not kill you, that instead I would tell you to feign death, trick the others, and then return to help you. This is what I did, although for a while I feared that you had misunderstood me, and that I would be found out.”
Now her question was quickly asked. “What would they have done to you if you had been found out?”
Rolf sneered. “Ha! They would have ran me through and thrown me aside without a thought! I am not a nobleman, and even the death of Sir Edwin, the Knight you killed, was nothing more than an excuse for more revelry to them.”
She stared at him a moment, her head tilted to one side in that inquisitive fashion. “Why did you go with them? Why did you wish to take part?”
“Because I am a fool,” Rolf said sadly. “I work in the King’s Court because I am a good tailor. Yes, a very good tailor, even though I say so myself. The shirt you wear is designed for Prince Harold, the King’s youngest son. Is it not fine and pleasing to the eye?”
She looked down at it. “It’s a bit big.”
“I will make it fit. It suits you better than he, and he will not miss it. Anyway, the art of a tailor, no matter how good or sought after, is no match for the exploits of war and battle. My youth and inexperience made me the butt of many jibes and jokes from the Knights who are kinsmen and friends to the King and his two sons. I longed to be accepted, and for the jibes to stop.
“When Prince Carl suggested that I take part in one of the Hunts, that it would make a man of me, I agreed. I was foolish, I know that now, but I had never been on a Hunt before. I didn’t know what it would be like. I had heard about them, but hearing tales and then seeing the truth are very different things. What I saw disgusted me. And I am glad only that it gave me the chance to meet and rescue you.”
She had finished the meat and was gnawing on the bone. The cup was empty by her side, and the skewer still in her hand. “What will you do now?” she asked.
Rolf took the skewer from her and put it down near the fire. He recovered the empty cup and stood up. “I shall not return to Court, never,” he said with determination as he put the cup down on the table. “How can I make garments for people I now detest? No, I shall never return to Ellerkan. I shall live the rest of my life here, in the forest.”
There was a crunch. Rolf stared as she cracked and ate the bone. The large haunch of meat was no more and in a few seconds the bone was also gone, and she sat by the fire licking her fingers.
“Are you still hungry?” he asked.
She shook her head.
“More coffee?”
She shook her head again. Then she stood up. The blanket fell away, revealing her beautiful, long, bare legs and perfect feet. The shirt reached down passed her hips and only just covered her vanity. She seemed unconcerned, and came towards him waving her greasy fingers. Rolf hurriedly poured some water from the bucket into a large bowl. As she washed her hands and face, he took a towel from one of his saddlebags.
“Here, use this,” he said. “The other towel I used on you is washed and dries on the line outside.”
She dried her hands and face. “You are very domesticated,” she said.
He nodded sadly. “I am, so you can understand why I was treated so poorly by the King’s men.”
Rolf took the bowl of water and went outside to empty it. When he came back, Soo-Kai was still standing by the table waiting for him.
“Do you wish me to stay with you?” she asked.
It was a direct question he wasn’t expecting. He suddenly felt very nervous. He put the bowl down on the table and swallowed.
“Yes, of course I want you to stay with me,” he replied. “I want that more than anything else in the world.”
She tilted her head to one side again. “Yes, I think you do. But you must understand what step you take. There are things you must know. I am not what I seem, and once the step is taken, there will be no escape for either of us.”